


Correspondence

by KarkaHatchlings



Series: Guild Wars 2 Interstitial [17]
Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game), Guild Wars Series (Video Games)
Genre: Conversations, Elemental Magic, Fluff, Gen, Holography, Magic, Necromancy, Rivalry, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 09:09:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16829524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KarkaHatchlings/pseuds/KarkaHatchlings
Summary: An inter-class and -college dispute delays a tour of Rata Sum.





	Correspondence

Blinking lights predominated the decor in the small flat. There was barely enough room to maneuver amid the furniture and humming, glowing, and burbling equipment, and even the sole inhabitant turned sideways to squeeze past a small laboratory countertop piled with partially-assembled minion templates.

“Just a minute,” she muttered, tapping fastidiously at a truncated stone pyramid next to a hammock. A bright purple swath unfolded in the air. The asura’s scowling face was visible through the holes that the curling letters of her own alphabet made in the display. Her thin lips moved as she read.

Left to his own devices, Urik turned a slow circle, the only space that he could move in. He kept his tail grasped in a meaty paw to avoid demolishing something with an ill-aimed swish. “Thanks,” the friendly rumble began somewhere deep in his barrel chest, “for agreeing to show me around. Rata Sum confuses me.” And the golems that were supposed to give directions were incomprehensible, but he didn’t add that.

Mippa gave a sharp sniff. “The Black Citadel’s worse. Everything here is laid out in a perfectly rational fashion.” She let the perfunctory rebuttal trail off, large eyes still fastened on the floating words. They drifted up to be replaced by more at the bottom, the languid flow only broken by an occasional diagram.

Furred shoulders rolled in an uncomplaining shrug. “Only had cause to visit the quays,” the final word, more well-practiced than the rest, sailed expertly out between the breakers of the charr’s jutting teeth.

The only reply this time was a twitch and wrinkle of Mippa’s nose. As if she didn’t know: the charr stank of salt, a crust that no bath was going to get out, blasted into his fur by sea winds. At least it was the clean scent of open water, not the fish-laden redolence of Lion’s Arch or the corrupted and briny reek of Orr. The quays below Rata Sum, of course, smelled pleasantly of ozone instead of baser natural odors.

Finding the passages of text she was looking for put the pungent visitor from her mind. Her high brow knitted to compress the markings on it together and she set her teeth. Unwanted heat rose in her face and ears. That little…

Meanwhile her guest waited patiently if uncomprehendingly. Whatever she was reading must be important, he reasoned, to keep him standing here. The thoughts were mild and amiable. He was a bit hungry, and that distracted him from further consideration along those lines. The krewe bars he’d had didn’t satisfy. Not like a good wurm meat stew.

The flicker of flames, blue like a gaslight, caught his eye on one of the low tables he was avoiding tripping over. He wasn’t sure what the little object was supposed to be, but it wasn’t a real fire, judging from how it was sitting there without marking the polished rock countertop. Urik squatted on his haunches for a better look and found that the resemblance wasn’t even that strong up close. The ersatz tongues of fire were squared off, jumping in precisely measured increments. Unfolding a claw, he prodded the curio. It was solid enough to emit a brittle-glass “tink!” at the touch and despite the appearance was no hotter than the admittedly somewhat warm room.

“Is this…?” Urik looked over where his host was still engrossed in her pseudo-parchment. She made a nonspecific grunt of acknowledgement but didn’t tear her eyes away. Or look like she was going to answer, or perhaps even hear what he might ask.

His long pink tongue ran the length of his muzzle and he squinted at the little oddment again before picking it up. It was cool to the touch, and glassy in texture, no, gauzy. Gauzy like a cloud. A cloud full of lightning that made the fur on the back of his hand and forearm stand up. And maybe it wasn’t as solid as it had looked originally? A testing clawtip now passed through the twinkling jags. 

The sudden squeak of outrage from Mippa was as incoherent as it was abrupt. Her guest gave a dull start and his shaggy head swung in her direction just in time to see her sweep her hands through the purple light before her as if to tear it to shreds. Disturbed, the text’s weft came apart and dissolved, only to reform seconds later. “The nerve!” she huffed hot-cheeked at the insolently undamaged words.

“The nerve!” it was repeated at a painfully higher pitch, making Urik’s upper pair of ears droop. “She thinks she’s so special, does she. ‘Skillset and conceptual schema in higher demand!’” She pantomimed an over-exaggerated impression of conceit.

“The joke is on her!” Mippa snorted and hopped down from her low perch. She took a step, whirled, and then a step in the opposite direction. There wasn’t any room to pace angrily in the tiny apartment. “Everyone knows that elemental conjures of that sort are falling out of favor! And that’s all anyone would want her around for, mark my words, and then, then that Synergetic snot-nose will be out on her fiery ass!”

No real explanation was forthcoming in the tirade, so it was up to the charr. “Who?” Obvious questions were a specialty of his, he’d been told.

“I don’t know!” Mippa’s ire fell on her guest, “she publishes anonymously, skritt-for-brains. Less worry about people stealing your work that way. As if she’s doing anything revolutionary at all, please, even bookahs have been using conjures like that for years. But oh no, more research, more funding, more everything into something everyone and their golem is already doing and not a scant copper can be spent on real groundbreaking work in holomancy or virtua--”

“What are you doing, put that down!”

Urik’s narrow eyes widened in mild alarm as he followed her gaze back to where the crystallized flame had settled in his palm and the fur near it started to smolder. 

An involuntary yowl of “burn me!” escaped him when the suddenly very real fire did just that and he snatched the injured appendage from under it. Rectangular sparks flew in all directions as it spun in the air. Seemingly glassy once more, it hit the table below with a hollow thump. The flames kept leaping merrily in their squarish fashion.

“It’s only real when you interact with it,” Mippa spoke slowly and enunciated to a derisive degree, “solid holography.”

It didn’t mean anything in particular to the charr, but he nodded anyway. That seemed to be what she wanted.

“And permanent, too!” she fussily rearranged the trinket. A few light touches restored it to its previous orientation without it burning anything. “Not like conjures where you’re always pressed for time, or have to use them sparingly.”

“They can be pretty useful,” Urik offered, “lots of tactical…” The furious glare scalding him from beneath her messy fringe suggested that further debate on the topic wouldn’t be welcome. Even if it was true.

A savage jerk pulled her hood back over her head, almost covering her eyes. “Some day, when I can get better funding and access to Moto’s box again, I’ll be able to publish my own research.” The exultant note on “my own” raised the charr’s hackles for reasons he couldn’t quite grasp. He understood zeal, but it was a little too fervent, even for him.

“Now,” she looked up at him, “let’s get to that tour so I can be rid of you. We’ll start with the Magihedron and move on to less important places from there.”

“Oh,” remembering his purpose, Urik dipped his heavy jaw in the affirmative, “thank you again.” A moment passed, then another. He looked down at the asura.

Mippa’s tiny shoulders slumped. “You’re blocking my door,” she grumbled in resignation.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted in /gw2g/.
> 
> Mechanics, items and locations referenced here correspond to in-game mechanics, items and locations: the reduction in power of Elementalist class conjures, Super Adventure Box weaponry, Elementalist/Necromancer rivalry and Rata Sum landmarks. Additionally, class-related arguments by anonymous posters on /gw2g/ are referenced.


End file.
